Improvement in signal attachments for elevators



C. HOFFMAN.

SIGNAL ATTACHMENT For; ELEVATOR.

Patente%yp% 19,l876.

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n. PETERS. FHOTO-UTHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES HOFFMAN, OF NEW YORK,.N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN SIGNAL ATTACHMENTS FOR. ELE VATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 182,364, dated September 19, 1876; application filed May 1c, 1876.

.To all whom itmay concern Be it known that I, CHARLES HOFFMAN, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Signal Attachment to Elevators, of which the following is a specification In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 represents a front elevation, partly in section, of an elevator or dumb waiter, with my improved signaling attachment; and Figs. 2 and 3, respectively, are a vertical transverse and a horizontal section on lines 0 C, Fig. l, and w m, Fig. 2.

.Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

My invention has reference to a signaling device for the elevators or dumb waiters in French fiat and other houses, by which notice is given to the party living in any one of the stories of the arrival of any article sent up by the elevator, and also a signal to the party delivering that the articles have arrived at the story for which they are intended.

The inventionconsists of an elevator or dumb waiter, arranged with a number of separate pulls and catches for each story that come in contact with a signaling or alarm de- 'vice of the corresponding story when raised to the proper height.

In the use of elevators or dumb waiters for French fiat houses, and other purposes, a lack of communication has been experienced be-. tween the parties inhabiting the different stories of the house and the parties that have to deliver articles of consumption to the same. The butcher or grocer boy usually places the articles to be delivered on the dumb waiter, and pulls the same up without knowing whether they arrive at the story for which they are intended or not, and without giving notice to the parties.

This has been sought to be remedied by speaking-tubes that run up from the lower part of the elevator to the different stories, but with little success, as frequently the parties are not Within hearing, and thereby the elevator is pulled up, but without knowledge whether it arrives at the proper story.

For this purpose I provide the elevator or dumb waiter A with as many knobs B as there are stories numbering each knob with the corresponding number of the flat. The knobs B serve to throw out a lever device, (Ltbat projects to the outside of the dumb waiter, so as to come in contact, when the elevator is raised, with a spring-lever, button, or other device, D, that rings a signaling-bell or other alarm. The contact-levcrs O are soarranged in relation to the signaling devices that the first lever can only come in contact with the signal mechanism of the first floor, the second lever With signal devices of the second floor, and so on, they being disposed at such points of the casing of the elevator that only the lever arranged for the special floor can strike the signaling device of that floor. The working of the elevator is thereby greatly facilitated, as the articles need only to be placed on the dumb waiter, the knob with the number of the story pulled out, and the dumb 'waiter hoisted until the ringing of the signaling device gives notice to the parties residing on that story that something has arrived for them to be takenout, and to the party hoisting that the dumb waiter has arrived at the proper story.

in taking out the goods the knob is pushed back, and the elevator is ready for being used again.

Thus a simple, reliable, and effective device is provided, by which the elevators may be worked with greater convenience and usefulness.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- As an improvement in elevators, the combination of pulls and lever mechanisms of the dumb Waiter, with signaling devices arranged at the different stories of the building, the lever mechanisms and signaling devices being so arranged that each lever operates only the signal of the story corresponding therewith, substantially 'as and for the purpose set forth.

CHARLES HOFFMAN.

Witnesses PAUL GoEPEL, T. B. Mosnna. 

